Rule of 55 / 50 — Early Withdrawal Penalty Checker

Why the calendar year matters, not your exact birthday

The Rule of 55 (and its earlier public-safety version, the Rule of 50) keys off the calendar year you separate, not your literal age on your separation date. If you separate in January, the same year you turn 55 in December, you still qualify — you don't have to wait for the birthday itself. That's why this tool asks for your birth year and separation year rather than a single age.

Three different exceptions, one 10% penalty

Everyone gets the standard Rule of 55. Federal law enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, CBP officers, and nuclear materials couriers — the same special categories modeled elsewhere on this site — get the same protection five years earlier, at 50. And under SECURE 2.0, any of those special-category employees with 25 or more years of service can withdraw penalty-free at any age at all once they separate, with no age floor whatsoever.

This is about the penalty, not the tax

Qualifying for one of these exceptions only removes the 10% additional tax — a traditional TSP withdrawal is still taxed as ordinary income regardless. And none of this applies once you're 59½ or older: at that point, the 10% penalty never applies to anyone, exception or not.